MOB Dynamics
Concepts: Chapter 2 – Perception, Personality, and Emotion
Perception – A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory
impressions in order to give meaning to their environment (p. 34).
Attribution Theory – When individuals observe behaviour, they attempt to
determine whether it is internally or externally caused (p. 37).
Distinctiveness – Asks whether the individual does the same thing in other
situations (p. 38); determinant of internal or external behavioural causes.
Consensus – Asks whether everyone in a similar situation acts the same way (p.
38); determinant of internal or external behavioural causes.
Consistency – Asks whether the individual has been acting the same way over a
long period of time (p. 38); determinant of internal or external behavioural
causes.
Fundamental attribution error – The tendency to underestimate the influence of
external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making
judgments about the behaviour of others (p. 39).
Self-serving bias – The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes
to internal factors while putting the blame for failure on external factors (p. 39).
Misjudging people: Why?
Selective perception – People selectively interpret what they see based on their
interests, backgrounds, experience, and attitudes (p. 39)
Halo effect – Drawing a general impression about an individual based on a single
characteristic (p. 40).
Contrast effect – A person’s evaluation is affected by comparison with other
individuals recently encountered (p. 40)
Projection – Attributing one’s own characteristics to other people (p. 40).
Stereotyping – Judging someone on the basis of your perception of the group to
which that person belongs (p. 40).
Personality – The stable patterns of behaviour and consistent internal states that
determine how an individual reacts to and interacts with others (p. 43)
Locus of Control – The degree to which people believe they are in control of their
own fate (p.48)
Machiavellianism – Degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains
emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means (p. 49).
Self-esteem – Individuals’ degree of liking or disliking themselves (p. 49).
Personality-Job Fit Theory – Identifies six personality types and proposes that
the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines
satisfaction and turnover (p. 54); Personality types – realistic; investigative;
social; conventional; enterprising; artistic (p. 55)
Emotion – Intense feelings that are directed at someone or something (p. 57)
Emotional labour – When an employee expresses organizationally desired
[appropriate] emotions during interpersonal interactions (p. 57).
Emotional Intelligence – An assortment of noncognitive skills, capabilities, and
competencies that influence a person’s ability to succeed in coping with
environmental demands and pressures (p. 60).